Seve Review

Seve
The story of the life of Severiano ‘Seve’ Ballesteros, Spanish golfing colossus. It interweaves archive footage and interviews with dramatised flashbacks to Seve’s childhood as a farm boy, struggling to develop his astonishing skills.

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

27 Jun 2014

Running Time:

124 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

Seve

This celebration of Spanish golfing legend Severiano Ballesteros is an unsuccessful mix of archive material – largely voiceover interviews with the man and clips of his many, many victories around the world – and dramatisations of Seve’s origins as a child prodigy, practicing swings on the beach or sneaking into the local golf club. For all the fancy match cuts, the backstory is chronically shallow and unsuspenseful, and runs on far too long. Seve’s own interviews give more insight into what made the genius tick, and the footage towards the end is hugely moving, but this is still a sadly missed opportunity.

The 2010 film Senna set the bar for recent sports docs that are gripping whether you follow the relevant sport or not. Unwieldy and sometimes interminable, Seve falls far short.
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